Australia’s remarkable jobs recovery

The latest economic figures show a remarkable recovery in the job market for Australia, with 90 per cent of those lost since March now regained.

New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show an additional 50,000 Aussies found work in December, dropping the unemployment rate to 6.8 per cent, a rate faster than economist predicted.

Economist and partner at Deloitte Access Economics Nicki Hutley says getting on top of the pandemic was the key to economic recovery.

“If you’re a healthy country, then you’ve got a healthier economy,” she told Ross and Russ on 3AW Breakfast.

While these figures represent good news for the economy, the looming end to JobKeeper in March could change the rosy outlook.

“It’d be highly improbable that we don’t see an increase in the jobless rate,” she said.

“There are zombie businesses out there, there are businesses which will stay on but need to let people go, surveys have been showing us that.

“But these December numbers show just how quickly we are recovering… But there’s still a big gap, we are still nearly two percentage points higher than we were in the unemployment rate at the start of the year.”

Click PLAY to hear the interview below